For years farriers have practiced the skill of shoeing hoofed animals with no substantial changes in the techniques employed. The usual procedure of shoeing a hoofed animal is to trim the keratinous portion of the hoof to the required length, and then an iron shoe is forged to match the trimmed hoof. Once the shoe has cooled, the shoe is attached to the hoof utilizing nails hammered through holes in the shoe into the hoof so that the nails project through the hoof wall. The projecting nails are then cutoff and cleated over as necessary.
The above process is generally most satisfactory, however, this method can cause many foot and leg ailments in the animal. For example, if when shoeing, a nail penetrates the sensitive part of a foot or if the animal casts off a shoe, leaving some nails projecting from the bottom of the hoof and on which the animal subsequently steps acute problems can be caused. Furthermore, an animal with brittle horn material sometimes cannot be shod because the nails would split the material. Although attempts have been made to eliminate the metal shoe and/or nails, they have proved unacceptable for general use.
Plastic shoes have been proposed to eliminate the metal shoe. However, such plastic shoes have failed due to the ineffectiveness and reliability of the adhesive utilized to attach the plastic shoe to the hoof. Adhesive fails under normal circumstances including an exposure to water, shock, repeated flexing, extremes of temperature and other conditions during use. The methods and equipment employed in an attempt to produce a practically acceptable cure time have not been successful even with the inclusion of heat generating devices within the adhesive or heat conducting apparatus in contact with the adhesives.
A further method is suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 3,476,190 issued on Nov. 4, 1969 and entitled "Hoof-Covering and Method of Its Manufacture" which discloses casting a plastic shoe directly onto the hoof of an animal. Special treatment of the hoof is required by providing borings or openings in the hoof in which the plastic material flows for binding of the shoe to the hoof. Additionally, a mold must be fixed around the hoof of the animal rendering the molding process difficult and time consuming.
A need has thus arisen for a plastic shoe for a hoofed animal which can be cured in place with minimal cure time and which positively adheres to the hoof of the animal. The method of shoeing the hoofed animal must be simple and should be one that does not require significant hoof preparation prior to the shoeing operation.